Standing with 75,000 people in L.A. at the Azusa Now gathering in 2016 profoundly impacted my life. Our team attended the event during our YWAM Tyler school outreach trip, and it was incredible to see that many people gathered together to lift up the name of Jesus. 

Before my YWAM DTS I was just going through all the motions that I thought others expected of me. I had been going to college, but after a few years of taking and retaking classes, I figured I should do something different with my life or at least postpone college until I knew what degree I wanted to work towards. While I was in college, I was also a youth leader at my church.

It was 1992 when my 29 year old daughter called home and announced that she was in Tyler, TX at Youth With a Mission to start a DTS the next day. My husband and I were astounded. DTS? What was that? Was our daughter involved with a cult? The last we had heard she was in upstate New York.

On a trip to South Asia, my colleague and I smuggled Bibles into a country that persecuted Christians and never allowed the Bible to be brought in or published. We knew it was God’s desire to give His Word to people in their heart language, so we took a risk and stuffed fifty Bibles into our luggage.

"Oh Lord, please don't ever ask me to go to Africa," I uttered quietly as the missionary spoke from the pulpit about his own experiences in that faraway land. As a young girl, fear gripped my heart when I heard his missions' stories about creepy crawlers and deadly pestilence. I didn't hear emphasis on how God had miraculously cared for him. The snakes, spiders, and malaria were the only things haunting my mind. From that moment on, I vowed never to leave America.

It was 1983 when I took a job as a clerical worker for an oil company in Houston to fill the time. I had a college degree and aspirations to teach, but after two years of working in the office,  I didn’t want to teach anymore. I also didn’t want to climb the corporate ladder at the oil company. In fact, I had no idea what I wanted to do next! I felt like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Seven years ago, our family found ourselves living life the only way we knew how. We owned a business, worked really hard, lived in the home of our dreams, and were very involved in our local church. However, like many Americans, we had tons of debt, and the job was literally killing me.

 The first time I heard about a Gap Year was when my son graduated high school and decided jumping into college wasn't on his agenda. Since then I've talked with a whole bunch of students wanting to take a Gap Year and many who already did it.

When I look back at my life, I have no regrets because each of the decisions and experiences I've had led me to where I am today. However, I have gained some insight along the way that will maybe help others who are trying to decide what to do after high school.

Life is, often, not what you plan for yourself but unfolds in ways that may be surprising.

I took my first mission trip, with my office team to Lubbock, Texas! It was my first outreach as a full time missionary with YWAM Tyler! None of us were students following leaders nor were there students following us. It was just us, a team of six full time missionaries, going into all the world to make disciples. Check out my photo journey of this outreach!